Joyful Mind, Motherly Mind, Great Mind ( ... and thank you to Beliefnet)

As we close this year 2009 ... all is truly but a constant beginning, ever new ...

And as we conclude our reading of the Tenzo Kyokun, there remains ongoing life and practice ...

In
these final passages, Master Dogen reminds us to be joyful, to take
care of our responsibilities like a parent for a child, and to embody
"Great Mind and Vast Heart" ...

For the first, he writes (as we saw yesterday)

Now we have the good fortune to be born as human beings ... Let us be joyous.

For "Mother Mind" he writes ...

So-called
[motherly heart] is the spirit of fathers and mothers. ... Without
regard for their own poverty or wealth, [parents] earnestly turn their thoughts
toward raising their child. Without regard for whether they themselves are cold
or hot, they shade the child or cover the child.

And for "Great Mind, Vast Heart", he states [in a good reminder for the turning year],

This vast
heart ... does not follow the sounds of spring or try to nest in a spring garden;
it does not darken with the colours of autumn. See the changes of the
seasons as all one movement, [all] in relation to each other within
a view which includes both."

He then concludes with three famous Koan stories which exemplify the point.

* * * * *

And so, from tomorrow, January 1st, we depart Beliefnet and move our home for this daily "Sit-a-long with Jundo" Zazen netcast to SHAMBHALA SUNSPACE, the webpage of the Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma magazines.

I
want to thank so much Beliefnet, their editors and staff, for this past
wonderful year and all their assistance and support ...

... and wish them ... and everyone ... a most content and peaceful 2010.

___________________________

This
life we live is a life of rejoicing, this body a body of joy which can
be used to present offerings to the Three Jewels. It arises through the
merits of eons and using it thus its merit extends endlessly. I hope that
you will work and cook in this way, using this body which is the fruition
of thousands of lifetimes and births to create limitless benefit for numberless
beings. To understand this opportunity is a joyous heart because even
if you had been born a ruler of the world the merit of your actions would
merely disperse like foam, like sparks.

A
"motherly heart" is a heart which maintains the Three Jewels as a parent
cares for a child. A parent raises a child with deep love, regardless
of poverty or difficulties. Their hearts cannot be understood by another;
only a parent can understand it. A parent protects their child from heat
or cold before worrying about whether they themselves are hot or cold.
This kind of care can only be understood by those who have given rise
to it and realized only by those who practice it. This, brought to its
fullest, is how you must care for water and rice, as though they were
your own children.

The
Great Master Sakyamuni offered to us the final twenty years of his own
lifetime to protect us through these days of decline. What is this other than the
exertion of this "parental heart"? The Thus Come One did not do this hoping
to get something out of it but sheerly out of munificence.

"Vast
heart" [or "Great Mind"] is like a great expanse of ocean or a towering mountain. It views
everything from the most inclusive and broadest perspective. This vast
heart does not regard a gram as too light or five kilos as too heavy.
It does not follow the sounds of spring or try to nest in a spring garden;
it does not darken with the colours of autumn. See the changes of the
seasons as all one movement, understand light and heavy in relation to each other within
a view which includes both. When you write or study the character "vast,"
this is how you should understand
its meaning.

If
the tenzo at Jiashan had not thus studied the word "vast," he could not
have woken up Elder Fu by laughing at him [from a story in which a monk's
laughter spurred Elder Fu
on to great practice].If Zen Master Guishan had not
understand the word "vast," he would not have blown on dead firewood three
times.[from a story in fascicle
6 of the Jingde Record: Once when the teacher [Baizhang] was working with
Guishan he asked, "Have you any fire, or not?" Guishan said, "I
have." The teacher said, "Where is it?" Guishan took a stick of
wood, blew on it two or three times, and passed it to the teacher.]If the monk Dongshan had not
understood the word "vast," he could not have taught the monk through
his expression, "Three pounds of flax."[from case 18 of the koan collection
Gateless Barrier (Wumenguan):A monk asked Dongshan, "What is buddha
like?" Dongshan replied, "Three pounds of flax."]

All
of these and other great masters through the ages have studied the meaning
of "vast" or "great" not only though the word for it but through all of
the events and activities of their lives. Thus they lived as a great shout
of freedom through presenting the Great Matter, penetrating the Great
Question, training great disciples and in this way bringing it all forth
to us.

The
abbot, senior officers and staff, and all monks should always maintain
these three hearts or understandings.